Pl. -ennia. [L., f. quinque five + annus year.] A period of five years; † spec. in Law (see quot. 1823).
1621. B. Jonson, Gipsies Metam., Wks. (Rtldg.), 619/1. He … looks as if he never saw his quinquennium.
1654. trans. Scudery’s Curia Pol., 77. I am but young, and have not seen more then a Quinquennium of my reign.
1771–2. Ess. fr. Batchelor (1773), II. 204. In the quinquenium (sic) of Lord Townshend’s administrations.
1823. Crabb, Quinquennium, a respite of five years, which insolvent debtors formerly obtained, by virtue of the King’s letter, to have time for the payment of their debts.
1879. Gladstone, in 19th Cent., Sept., 580. The last quinquennium of trade does not exhibit an increase.
